The Future of Digital Displays in Restaurants
Restaurants around the world are using digital displays to advertise products, make menus easier to read, and connect with customers. But since digital signage technology is constantly evolving, maybe you’re wondering what the future of digital displays in restaurants looks like.
The Biggest Digital Display Trends for Restaurants
Here are the key trends to watch out for with digital displays in restaurants this year and moving forward.
More Compelling Experiences for Customers
When people today go to a restaurant, they aren’t just looking for a place to eat. They want to experience something that they don’t get to in the course of their average day.
Digital displays will continue opening up new possibilities in this area.
Restaurants can offer interactive menus, which are fun to use and highly efficient, or create a more immersive, digital-focused dining location.
Then, since customers can order for themselves, they’ll be less shy about ordering whatever they want if they feel like having an extra dessert or another cocktail.
More Personalization
Digital displays also give restaurants more ways to personalize their customers’ dining experiences.
For example, digital display menus at the table can be personalized based on a customer’s dining preferences, allergies, the time of day, and more. They can also be used for games, trivia, and personalized live streaming video entertainment while guests wait for their meals.
Cost-efficiency and adaptability
These days, digital displays are extremely cost-effective. And as the technology involved advances (media players, cloud-based digital signage software, the displays themselves), digital signage will be even more accessible for businesses of all sizes.
Digital signage software can even automate and accomplish staff responsibilities, such as taking orders, processing payments, and more. That way, you can use your digital signage software for much more than simply displaying marketing content and menus.
In the future, expect this go even further with more process automation, and a digital system that can offer a lot more customer-facing and employee-facing functionality for restaurants to take advantage of.
Higher Resolution Screens
The current industry standard is 4K, with 1080p screens still widely used. Over the next several years, we can expect that to move towards 8K resolution. Eventually 1080p will become phased out.
Just like how now 720p is hardly considered HD anymore. The cost of ultra-high resolution screens will continue to go down, and media players that support 8K output will be more readily available.
The Future of Digital Menu Boards
Digital menu boards are currently one of the best use-cases for digital signage technology in restaurants. This should only become more prevalent over time.
It’s difficult to make a static menu board stand out these days. With digital menu boards, restaurants are able to add things like animations and high-resolution videos or images to engage customers from the moment they walk through the door.
Additionally, static menu boards are difficult to change. Restaurants that use them can either print out entirely new menu boards when their menus change or upgrade existing ones in unsightly ways.
Digital menu boards are incredibly easy to update by comparison. You can change an item’s price, size offerings, add a new dish, or create a more personalized experience without incurring additional costs or impacting visual quality to do so. Cloud based content management systems also allow for menus to be updated from anywhere, giving staff the freedom to be in other locations while still ensuring the accuracy of pricing and product being displayed.
Digital Displays in Restaurants Are Here to Stay
Digital displays are showing up in restaurants of all types for good reason. They provide a lot of flexibility in terms of what you can display on them, and a ton of valuable functionality in terms of features.
It’ll be interesting to see how the technology evolves in the coming years. But one thing is for sure, digital signage in restaurants is going to be more and more common with more and more functionality over time.